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Don Brash's 2025 Taskforce financial report seems destined to end up being shelved, with some saying it is too extreme.
The report, released on Monday, makes recommendations aimed at bridging the income gap with Australia by 2025.
Recommendations include cutting government spending to 2005 levels, lowering the minimum wage and raising the age that people get superannuation.
Business commentator Brian Gaynor says the report's recommendations will not be acceptable to politicians.
"These taskforces come back with recommendations, most of them are too radical and very few of the recommendations get implemented. So, we actually get nowhere as a result of it. We're not getting the politicians making the right decisions to bridge that gap between us and Australia," he says.
Gaynor agrees with Brash that the widening productivity gap with Australia is a huge problem, but he says instead of cutting tax and government spending, New Zealand needs to support the productive sector.
"At the moment banks are not lending to the productive sector, and you had a float like Synlait last week which was pulled because New Zealand investors won't invest in something that's new because they're scared," he says.
Meanwhile, Brash has defended the recommendations, saying the taskforce was commissioned to come up with its best professional judgement on how to catch up with Australia.
In his view, the recommendations are not extreme.
"We think what we're recommending is consistent with best practice around the world. We've got a huge gap to catch up with Australia. We're 35% below Australia at this point, and we think we'll need to get everything right if we're to close that gap within the next 16 years," he says.
He says there are two big problems: the long term crisis of New Zealand falling behind Australia, and the immediate crisis of the country's indebtedness.
New Zealand borrows $250 million a week to meet its budget requirements and is the third most heavily indebted country in the developed world behind Iceland and Hungary.
"It's a big ask," says Brash. "We need to more than double per capita growth rates over the next 16 years and hold those growth rates consistently."
The taskforce also considered what could be done to bring the Kiwi dollar down to improve New Zealand's export returns. Considerations included adopting the US and Australian dollars, with the aussie being the best option.
However, the taskforce did not recommend it, saying it would not be a silver bullet and comes with risks and costs.
However, Brash believes the suggestion should be looked at seriously.
Acting Prime Minister Bill English says much of the report is too radical for the government to push through.
Before the report was released, Prime Minster said radical changes would unlikely be implemented quickly, if at all, and said he preferred an incremental approach.
